Posts Tagged ‘paul stolper’

Stolper + Friends, the Oslo art gallery that Magne co-owns together with Paul Stolper and Hugo Opdal, is set to close its doors by the end of the year.

“Our owners have ongoing projects all over the world, and we have decided to close down the gallery. The company will continue, but we will instead focus on so-called “pop-up” exhibitions around Oslo”, daily manager Kate Smith tells Dagens Næringsliv’s paper edition.

The gallery opened in September 2011 and has featured artists such as Peter Blake and Damien Hirst, in addition to Magne’s own projects. His Norwegian Wood sales exhibition, which ended this past weekend, was almost completely sold out.

“Our exhibitions have been successfull, but our rental agreement at Tjuvholmen ends in December, so we decided to close down”, Smith says.

The gallery’s last exhibition will be Art Under Pressure (8 Nov. – 22 Dec.), a smaller version of the Atelje Larsen group exhibtion which was held in Helsingborg, Sweden two years ago. Magne and Apparatjik are among the artists represented.

Magne and his wife Heidi were at Flø this weekend, where they attended the annual Go With The Flø art festival. The festival included an exhibition by Damien Hirst and two concerts by Lowell.

But this year Magne was not exhibiting or performing himself:

“This time I’m only here to enjoy myself. Go With The Flø is great opportunity to make a visit to Western Norway and meet friends and acquaintances. And I’m here together with my London gallerist, Paul Stolper, who is also Damien Hirst’s gallerist”, Magne told Sunnmørsposten.

The festival’s Facebook page has a few photos of Magne and Simen Staalnacke (Moods of Norway) fishing and standing in front of a new ice cream van.

Magne in front of his version of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. The black P and B is an homage to Sir Peter Blake.

Magne’s new Beatles-inspired exhibition Norwegian Wood opened with a private view at the Paul Stolper gallery in London last night. NRK had an interview with Magne yesterday, as he prepared for the opening, which can be viewed here.

Helter Skelter by Magne F, 2013

Norwegian Wood came about because Magne wanted to return to his woodcut-techniques of the mid-90s. During the preparations, he was asked to make the music for the upcoming Beatles-movie, which in turn inspired the theme of this exhibition.

“The Beatles was our pathway to adventure, they were our big heroes. We were like those boys in Lars Saabye Christensen’s book, we grew up with The Beatles. We had big dreams and made it big, largely because of them”, Magne told NRK.

For the artistic process, Magne was able to borrow antique woodcut tools from Sir Peter Blake, who designed the album cover of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

“His tools were quite small and delicate, while I have a somewhat rougher style. So for some of these woodcuts I had to use a chainsaw as well.”

Some photos of Magne creating the woodcut prints at Atelje Larsen in Helsingborg, Sweden can be seen at paulstolper.com.

Blake was scheduled to attend the private opening yesterday, where Magne would return the tools.

“Paul McCartney couldn’t make it to the opening, unfortunately, but he sent an e-mail with his best wishes”, Magne says.

Come Together by Magne F, 2013

Magne will be busy working on the Beatles film music in the coming fall and winter, but he’s already got some ideas ready.

“It’s a bit scary to compose something that will be heard alongside the iconic Beatles music. You need to find the right balance of being both respectful and disrespectful. The film music has to stand on its own feet, but also sound authentic of that time period.”

Magne has also made a few other public appearances recently. On April 18th he appeared at The Thief in Oslo, as UK newcomer Gabrielle Aplin did an intimate showcase gig.

“The concert was really good. She writes and sings beautifully. People should keep an eye on her, and be proud that they had a chance to see her this early”, he told seher.no.

On April 29th Magne attended the European opener of Bruce Springsteen’s Wrecking Ball Tour 2013, at Telenor Arena in Oslo. “I’m the world’s biggest Bruce Springsteen-fan”, he said (sarcastically?) as he walked in the VIP-entrance.

The Paul Stolper gallery in London has announced a new Magne F exhibition, entitled Norwegian Wood, which opens on 3 May:

This new series ‘Norwegian Wood’ uses music as its main reference point, but this time it is the iconic pop music of the Beatles, music which Furuholmen grew up listening to, and which directly inspired him to leave his native country to become an internationally renowned musician at a young age. Borrowing titles of songs and lyrics, the artist creates new works by transforming and changing these well-known word combinations into a new visual language. ‘I use letters and words as the architecture of my works – both for composition and conceptually, as a kind of emotional architecture.’ (Magne F, March 2013). These vibrant, new works mark a return to music as the main source of inspiration, and also to the monumental woodcuts that launched the artist’s career in 1995.

Read the whole press release and see a selection of the works on paulstolper.com. The exhibition will be open from 3 May to 1 June. A private view, presumably with Magne present, is held on 2 May.

The new gallery Stolper + Friends, which is owned by Paul Stolper, Magne Furuholmen and Hugo Opdal, opens at Tjuvholmen in Oslo tonight with the exhibition “The Souls” by Damien Hirst.

“The reason why I wanted to establish the gallery here, is that Tjuvholmen is a new district still in the making and in constant development. And with the Astrup Fearnley museum opening [next year] and the other galleries already here, I think we’ll get a nice dynamic which will attract many art fans to the area”, Magne told Aftenposten in an interview last week.

Magne’s own exhibition “Futura Plus”, which was supposed to open the gallery but was cancelled after the July 22nd tragedy, will instead be shown in Sweden sometime in November, he tells newspaper Dagsavisen today.

In an article at TheArtNewspaper.com yesterday, Magne said “Futura Plus” features “words including ‘death’ and ‘accident’, painted on blood-stained sheets collected from hospital autopsy-rooms and similar.”

At Stolper + Friends, “The Souls” is on display until October 2nd and will be followed by an exhibition of sculptures.